1941:Native Son, a stage adaptation of James Baldwin's novel, opens at the St. James Theater in New York City.

1997: Tiger Woods becomes the youngest person to win golfs Master's Tournament, as well as the first person of color to do so.

1941: African-American doctor Charles Richard Drew opens the first blood bank in New York. Segregation laws prevent him from donating his own blood.

1997: The White House issues an official policy to the survivors and families of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment which began in the 1940s. Hundreds of infected black men were denied treatment in order to study the effects of the disease over time.

1941:Negro Digest begins publishing in Chicago with an initial circulation of 3,000.

1997: African-American filmmaker Spike Lee forms an advertising company to make television commercials geared towards black and urban consumers.